UPDATE 1-India's Sept trade deficit $18.1 bln, widest in 11 mths

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Last Updated: Thu, Oct 11, 2012 18:44 hrs

(Recasts, adds details)

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 (Reuters) - India's annual exports fell
for the fifth consecutive month and imports rose in September,
pushing the trade deficit to its widest in 11 months in the
latest bleak data from Asia's third largest economy as it
struggles to balance its finances.

Exports contracted to $23.7 billion, 11 percent lower than
last year, the government said in a statement, without giving
details of which sectors were worst hit. Imports rose for the
first time since April, driven by an almost 31 percent jump in
crude oil purchases for the energy-hungry economy.

September's $18.1 billion trade deficit was the biggest
since October 2011, a worrying development for the government
while it seeks to stave of the threat of a downgrade to India's
sovereign debt rating.

Massive asset purchase programmes unveiled by the central
banks in the United States, Europe and Japan are expected to
stoke higher global commodity prices, which would inflate
India's import bills.

Heeding warnings by Standard & Poor's and Fitch that the
fiscal and current account deficits could trigger a credit
downgrade, the government has recently taken unpopular steps
such as hiking diesel prices and allowing foreign supermarkets
in the retail sector.
(Reporting by Arup Roychoudhury; Editing by Frank Jack
Daniel/Simon Cameron-Moore)